School uniforms - a new experience

School uniforms were a new experience for the boys, but they do not mind wearing them. As a mum I find it very convenient and I also think it makes it easier for the kids. We never have to wonder what the kids are going to wear to school and my impression is that it reduces peer pressure.

In addition to reducing peer pressure when it comes to clothes, it's claimed that uniforms emphasizes membership and group identity, fostering a community spirit. It's also said that it instills a sense of pride and discipline in students. My boys certainly are proud of their uniforms. When we went to Norway in the beginning of May to see their class mates in Norway, they both wore their uniforms to show the kids what they looked like.

Identical clothes are easily mixed up

I also believe it's true that there is less stealing of clothes in school, as everyone is wearing the same clothes. The only thing you need to be extra careful with is to remember to name all your kids' clothes. If you forget to put their names in their jumpers and they take them off on a nice, warm day, you may not get the same jumper back in the afternoon. Even if you do put their names on the name tag your kids may still take the wrong jumper home. In the first three months we were here, our youngest son came home twice with the wrong jumper and we still haven't been able to locate where his jumpers went. One of the jumpers he came home with was even a size smaller than his own ...

When searching the Internet I've found many good reasons for wearing school uniforms, and also many reasons why it's not a good idea.

Little focus on phones and toys

I don't know whether it's the school uniforms, but the boys have told me that mobile phones is not something that's talked about at school. This has also affected our discussions at home.

In Norway the boys first started talking about wanting their own phones when they were in year 1. As the kids have grown older, the number of kids with mobile phones has increased and the pressure of having their phones has increased correspondingly, as have our discussions at home. In addition some of the kids have very expensive phones like iPhones or other smartphones, so the kids no longer only want a phone, they want a smartphone. While we've been here it hasn't really been a topic.

Another positive aspect of school life here is that kids don't bring toys to school and they don't talk much about their toys either. In Norway kids bring popular toys to school, including expensive toys like Nintendo DS/Gameboy or similar. This creates peer pressure and lots of parents are nagged into buying the most popular toys at the time. Sometimes toys are stolen at school, which is very sad for the children affected.